The major breakthrough in progressive and Black
politics in the Reaganite eighties has been the rise of
the Rainbow Coalition, and the transformation of Rev.
Jesse Jackson as a major, visionary leader in the tradi
tion of Garvey, King, and Malcolm. As we prepare for
next year's presidential primaries, we should make a
critical assessment of the strengths as well as weak
nesses in the Rainbow up to this point. If we fail to do
so, Jackson's effort may yield no lasting benefits.
Why did 80 percent of the Black electorate and a
small but growing percentage of white liberal-leftists
back Jackson in 1984? Because we viewed the Rain
bow Coalition as an essentially social protest move
ment, a Black-led, anti-racist mobilization drawing its
strength from the grassroots across this country, which
had acquired an elecoral form. The Rainbow Coalition
was fundamentally a revolt against the political betray
als and backwardness of the Democratic Party; but
because of the absence of a mass, social democratic
or labor electoral party in this country, the revolt had to
occur within the Democratic Party's own primaries. We
viewed the Rainbow as a means to build bridges across
race, gender and class boundaries, linking up the
various progressive struggles being waged by people of
color, feminists, the homeless, the unemployed, gays,
lesbians, trade unionists, farmers, housing tenants, and
dozens of other key constituencies.
And we also
viewed the Rainbow Coalition as an opportunity to
break the anticommunist, bipartisan monopoly within
American electoral politics. Through the campaign it
self, we discovered that we could present our ideas to a
large audience on domestic and international policies.
By and large, this analysis correctly depicts the main
reasons why this group will endorse the Rev. Jesse
Jackson's 1988 presidential campaign, and why it will
continue to build the Rainbow Coalition after next year.
But our commitment toward constructing a Rainbow
movement should not for a moment obscure a critique
of the weaknesses and potential problem areas of the
Rainbow up to this point. Certainly there’s been real
organizational weaknesses and a lack of real leadership
from the national center. Local grassroots activists
were left frequently to fend on their own, without ade
quate support or direction.
This situation should
change, however, with the recent appointment of Ron
Daniels as acting head of the Rainbow's National Of
fice in Washington, D.C. Daniels was previously pre
sident of the National Black Political Assembly, a pre
party formation of Black progressive politicians which
came out of the Gary, Indiana Black political conven
tion of 1972. Daniels has strong administrative skills,
but more importantly, he also has a lifelong commit
ment toward building an independent political vehicle
outside of the Democrat and Rebuplican parties. Dan
iels has roots as a community activist in the Youngs
town, Ohio, Black community, and he is a person who
shares a clear commitment to anticorporate politics.
However, another real contradiction inside the Rain
bow has been between some of the more moderate
forces vs. much of the left. The former view the Rain
bow narrowly as primarily a means to barter more effec
tively for concessions from the Democratic Party's heir-
archy, while not trying to overturn the undemocratic
structure of America's party system. The left wing, on
the other hand, sees the Rainbow as a necessary but
transitional stage toward a new kind of basic realign
ment inside American politics. These two perspectives
will continue to conflict with each other until one or the
other becomes dominant. If the "moderates" win,
Jesse's campaign may succeed in obtaining a few criti
cal concessions from the white Democratic Party estab
lishment, but the basic second-class, Jim Crow position
of Black folks within the party will probably remain. If
the left emerges, we can expect the Democratic leader
ship to do all it can to discredit Jackson, identical to
the orchestrated smear of Gary Hart earlier this year. If
Jackson emerges as the party's presidential leader after
the megaprimaries in the South next March, a supreme
counterattack will be launched to destroy and to derail
both Jesse and the Rainbow. We must prepare our
selves now for this probable political assault. The time
is short.
Twenty-First Century Leaders
What will be the future of the Civil Rights Movement
in the 21st Century? Who will lead African Americans
in the next century toward greater progress and em
powerment? Well, in the South, particularly in the state
of Alabama, the answers to these two important que
stions are now being provided by an outstanding gath
ering of young, gifted and committed Black youth
leaders.
The Alabama New South Coalition has, for the past
two years, sponsored the 21st Century Youth Leader
ship Training Camp. This summer the camp was held
on the campus of historically Black Alabama A & M
University in Normal, Alabama. Over 160 African Amer
ican youth from throughout Alabama, as well as a few
from other southern states, participated in the 10-day
training camp. They ranged in age from 8 to 19 years
and were divided into 14 different leadership develop
ment groups. The groups went through a demanding
schedule of mental and physical development, training
workshops, history and culture seminars and special
interest sessions. The sessions covered a wide-range of
subjects from teenage pregnancy and drug abuse to
computer technology and voter mobilization.
The theme of this year's camp was "A Look Back,
a Step Forward." One of the daily highlights was the
viewing of the six segments of "Eyes on the Prize," the
Public Broadcasting TV series on the Civil Rights Move
ment of the 1960's. The young participants gained even
more by being able to talk with nationally known civil
rights leaders who visited the camp, many of whom
appeared in the TV series.
Rosa Parks, for example, reminded all those yearning
to be leaders of the necessity "to put your faith in God
and in your people by taking a deliberate action for that
which is right." Rev. C.T. Vivian, a former executive
director of Dr. King's Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, gave a stirring address about the sacrifices
Letters to the Editor
Dr .Jam il chemvee
that leadership has to make in order to insure that vic
tories are won for the cause of freedom.
The dream and idea of having this kind of camp came
from that dynamic and hard-working Black family team
of Atty. Rose Sanders and State Sen. Hank Sanders of
Selma, Alabama. By sponsoring these events, the Ala
bama New South Coalition, of which the Sanders are
members, continues to provide progressive and critical
leadership for the state of Alabama, and the South in
general.
I personally feel blessed that I had an opportunity to
witness the enthusiasm and commitment of so many
dedicated young sisters and brothers, who labored
daily from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. It is truly a good sign
when young people themselves make up their minds
that they want to be leaders and are willing to endure
the rigors necessary to become leaders. Near the end of
the camp the young people voted for the person among
them who best exemplified the qualities of leadership.
They chose 17-year-old Rachel Zippert, from Greene
County, Alabama. Rachel addressed the closing ban
quet and stated, "In order to be a 21st Century leader,
I realize that I have to prepare myself now for this
responsibility. I have learned so many things this week
that I will definitely use as I make decisions for the
future. I am —and we all should be—21st Century
leaders."
Mayor Richard Arrington of Birminham, Alabama,
introduced Rev. Jesse Jackson who gave the final key
note address. Rev. Jackson stated, "W hat you have
accomplished here will have a positive impact on the
whole nation."
It is our hope and prayer that the Alabama camp can
become a model for all African American communities
and other racial and ethnic communities. For, the in
vestment of time and energy with our young will larg
ely determine whether there will be a future.
HEALTH WATCH
BY Steven Bailey, N.D.
The P rison S ystem
Fears have been expressed that under the guise of
eliminating "aggressive" behavior, the authorities are
really seeking to end political activism in the prisons
by destroying the minds of the more politically con
scious inmates. Can we use dangerous and inhumane
"behavior modification" techniques on inmates, then
release the finished products: "vegetables" on society.
Around this nation, inmates, whom prison authorities
have termed "abnormally aggressive," are given
electroshock, psychosurgery, massive drugging hypno
sis, adversive conditioning and sensory deprivation.
Some investigators have charged that chemotherapy
and psychosurgery being developed in the prisons will
eventually be used against the civilian population to
control or eliminate political dissidence. Inmates have
been used as captive guinea pigs by drug companies to
test exotic new drugs before they are introduced on the
market.
The number of inmates who have been
maimed or killed by these experiements is unknown.
Furthermore, the number of Black and third world in
mates involved in such programs is high, raising the
spectre of Nazi concentration camps and genacidal
experimentation.
Our concern should be for the wholeness and free
dom of the individual. The opportunity to be the best
person we can be under God is matched by an emphasis
on the individual's participation in decisions which af
fect his or her own body and life. Imposing the will of
others and manipulating an individual, by either physical
or spiritual means, violates the integrity of the person.
It's a known fact that penal institutions, as they are
constructed today, do not rehabilitate the inmates;
but instead, serve only as an environment which im
poses numerous deprivations and presents many
threats to the individual's identity, sense of worth and
integrity. These threats or deprivations exist on two
levels: They are discomfort and boredom, etc. But
much more important are the deliberate symbolic and
psychological threats to the individual's sense of well
being.
If the prison institution destroys the inmate's present
self and molds him into a model prisoner, can we expect
the inmate to return to the community as a model citi
zen? If the only acceptable goal is a fundamental
change in the personality and life style of the inmate,
prisons are no place for the practice of psychiatry and
psychiatric experiments.
Lack of employment, education, money to support a
family, or opportunity will force many poor people to
commit crimes that will force them to return to prison.
Perhaps this is a sign that it cannot treat the disease
itself, which is unemployment; but at the same time,
there is no justification for it to dehumanize the poor
victim further.
This fear of genocide in the Black communities
around this nation is, therefore, not part of the "folk
culture," but part of the real and symbolic universe of
our existence. It is standard for social scientists to say
that such fears will go away once the economic position
of Blacks improves, but it will probably never go away;
because so-called Christian Amerika has concretely and
symbolically said that it does not trust even the most
well-intentioned of the Black community in so many
ways.
While the 1980's have seen a time of record numbers
of medical mal-practice suits, the eventual outcome of
these suits may be far from what most Americans want.
We have, to a large degree, concentrated upon the
rising costs of insurance and the impact to the private
physician. What we have not attended to is the very
great potential of losing choice and personal empower
ment in our own health care.
Nowhere are these fears better illustrated than in the
area of obstetrics (child birth). This is certainly the area
of greatest concern, and subsequently represents a field
with extremely high mal practice rates. This has trans
lated into a large number of private obstetritians either
retiring, changing fields or joining hospitals to perform
their work. While some people would hold this out as a
major gain (believing that hospitals offer the safest envi
ronment for birth), I feel that it is in direct opposition to
the gains of personal empowerment that women have
witnessed in the past two decades.
I can still vividly recall one of my first obstetrics
patients telling me about her first two hospital births in
the early 70's. She was completely unconscious with
both her arms and legs strapped to the delivery table.
She was not conscious during the delivery and did not
see her children until the following day. The home birth
we provided for her third went smoothly and she holds
much fonder memories of this birth and the immediate
bonding that followed. While most hospitals now offer
much more supportive environments than in the 50's
and 60's, we are not that far removed from the "doctor
controlled" environment that once was the rule of
western medicine.
The question that remains is whether hospitals began
more gentle birth proceedures out of an understanding
of the benefits of this approach or out of a desire to
compete with private birth homes and out-of-hospital
clinics that promote more "natural" approaches to de
livery. As more and more out-of-hospital clinics close
due to skyrocketing insurance costs, this question will
be answered.
It is ironic and tragic that through suits for mal-prac
tice we may indeed be altering the direction of our
"New Age" approach to medicine and returning once
again to the impersonal and high-cesarian-rate environ
ment of hospitals for our care. There a multitude of
reasons that we are suing doctors (too many to com
ment on in this article), yet let us hope that we do not
allow liability rates to determine our county's direction
in health care. We should be able to demand accoun--;
tability and receive quality care of our choice at the
same time.
Portland Observer
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